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Vanishing Realms screenshot | Image: IndiMo Labs

I had no idea what to expect walking into Valve’s meeting room to playVanishing Realms,an upcoming VR game for theVive. Contributing to my curiosity was the fact that for the final two days of GDC 16, Valve was handing their booth over to 3rd party developers instead of showing their incredible VR mini-games collectively known as The Lab. Imagine my supreme surprise when I realized Vanishing Realms felt like a real-life D&D game crossed with The Legend of Zelda.

After putting on the Vive headset, a pair of headphones, and the system’s comfortable touch controllers, I was transported to a classic looking stone dungeon. There were heavy wooden doors, mysterious scrolls, watery graves, and rooms with hidden treasures tucked into shadowy corners, inviting cautious exploration.

Space allowing, I could physically walk through the dungeon -- and it felt perfectly natural to do so -- but a common VR mechanic I’m seeing is the ability to teleport or “blink” (ala Dishonored) to various locations by pointing to it and clicking the thumbpad.

My vision here wasn’t obscured by a UI, and I think that's super important for VR immersion. Looking down, however, revealed icons showing my health, mana, sword sheath, and a backpack icon. Using the Vive’s touch controller, I could simply dip my hand into my backpack and pull out objects like apples to revive health, or the all-important torch to illuminate the dank darkness.

It’s fascinating how meaningful a staple gameplay mechanic like health recovery can feel in VR. You’re walking up to that apple, physically and deliberately plucking it off some barrel or surface, and dropping it into your sack. It really gives the simplest action true weight. And yep, there were giant pots to break scattered around. I felt just like Link.

Vanishing Realms Logo | Image: IndiMo Labs

At some point I stumbled across a room with an inactive fire pit, three open areas, and one locked gate. Lighting the fire with my torch, I noticed the flames were bright red. It reminded me a red pot I'd seen in another room. Moderate puzzles like this are one of the stars of Vanishing Realms because they don't require any explanation. In fact, nothing in the first chapter did. I was pushing forward based on instinct and exploration, and it worked like a charm.

After scooping up some neglected treasure (literally using a scooping motion) and a few potions for later, I lifted a heavy metal key off a nearby wall and made my way down a long cobblestone hallway leading to a sword room. I picked up the sword by its handle, and then remembered I had a left hand that I wasn't using. So I simply walked up and chose another sword with the left hand. Duel-wielding! But why on earth would I need swords?

A giant skeleton was waiting in the next area to assault me.

I say "giant" because he was staring down at me with frightening yellow eyes, and he seemed enormously wide. I say "giant" because I was literally sizing him up. The VR experience made me aware of my own height, and aware of this enemy towering over me with his imposing stance.

I struck out at him with my right sword, glancing his shield and making no impact. Suddenly he lunged at me with his sword, and I instinctively blocked it with my left. There! He was vulnerable and I slashed at him just inside the shield and took him down a few hit points. As this battle continued, I realized something. This wasn't just some minion you easily smacked into oblivion. This was a battle with weight, with tactics, and honestly with a bit of fear. I seldom use the word, but it was a visceral experience. Perhaps this what a VR Dark Souls might feel like, or a real-life D&D game.

The demo was over after a tragically short 10 or 15 minutes, but the memories of that dungeon have been etched into my brain. After returning to the real world, I was promised a chat with the lead developer, Kelly Bailey.

Who's Kelly Bailey? Pretty much the 5th employee Valve ever hired. He was the man behind the music and sound effects in Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and designed several of the series' most important moments such as the test chamber disaster sequence that opened Half-Life. Oh, and Gordon Freeman's face was based on him.

Though no longer with Valve, Bailey has his own studio now called IndiMo labs. I asked him how many people at the studio were working on Vanishing Realms.

His answer? "It's just me." Needless to say I was fairly shocked by the response. The systems in place here are elegant and intuitive, and it's a fully realized world. One individual made this? Then again, Bailey seems like a man who understands fun game mechanics.

7 months ago Bailey bought a Vive development kit and he buried himself in it for 16 hours a day, working obsessively on Vanishing Realms, and drawing heavy inspiration from the very thing I felt like I had just walked through: D&D. With a dash of Zelda. He plans to release it on April 5th to coincide with the Vive launch, although it will be an Early Access title.

I still have a lot of questions about Vanishing Realms, as I'm sure you do. It's looking to be a great, classic RPG in an RPG-starved VR launch. I don't understand how character progression will work, nor how magic will work. I do know there are a variety of weapons, but I don't know if upgrades are a reality yet. The dungeon I saw today was obviously a slice of a larger game, but it was a damn promising slice. It's the kind of experience you just can't replicate outside of VR, and I desperately want to continue my questing as soon as possible.